Technical Field
The present invention relates to a program that gives a computer connected to a touch screen the function of a character input device that inputs character information to an application that runs on the computer, as well as to a character input device and an information processing device equipped with a touch screen that use the program.
Description of Related Art
There has been widespread use of technology for displaying a virtual keyboard on a touch screen or other such display device, and receiving an operation to select characters on this virtual keyboard as a character input operation. Such prior art includes ensuring a display area on the screen of an application by means of a virtual keyboard on which the characters to be inputted are lined up, and devising the configuration of the virtual keyboard so as to enhance the efficiency of character input work.
For instance, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2003-76478 states that a first keyboard is displayed in which the leading character in each row of the Japanese syllabary are lined up as representative characters, and when one of the characters in this first keyboard (such as “”) has been selected, a second keyboard is displayed in which the characters other than the representative character in the row for which the selected character is the representative character (such as “,” “,” “,” and “”) are lined up. The first and second keyboards are both a band-shaped area, and they may be disposed at a right angle to one another, or they may be disposed parallel to one another (see FIGS. 3 and 5, paragraphs 0011 to 0017, etc., in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2003-76478).
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2012-3545 states that a plurality of representative characters are arranged in an arc within a fan-shaped area, and in response to an operation in which one of the representative characters is tapped, the characters within the row corresponding to the character designated by this operation are displayed lined up to the inside of the row of representative characters, and a tap on the inside row is received as a character input operation (see FIGS. 4 and 6, paragraphs 0031 and 0033, etc., in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2012-3545). Furthermore, it is stated in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2012-3545 that, in response to a character input operation being performed, the inputted character is displayed, and candidate character strings that can be converted from that character are displayed on the outside of the fan-shaped area, allowing for the selection of a candidate character string to be received (see FIG. 7, paragraphs 0047 to 0049, etc., in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2012-3545).
Ways to improve the efficiency of character input work are not limited to those related to virtual keyboards as discussed above. For example, one widely used method involves receiving the selection of a candidate after displaying a candidate area in which are arranged as candidate character strings those character strings that can be inputted following the input character string confirmed in response to the confirmation of an input character string (hereinafter a candidate of this type will be referred to as a “linked candidate”) (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2014-178953).